


do a good turn

by 24ko



Series: mcgenji au week 2018 [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Established Relationship, M/M, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 04:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15259311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/24ko/pseuds/24ko
Summary: She rounds on him, pleased, smug, and shakes a blue polyresin portfolio at him. "I'm collecting on your debts." Or: Jesse gets girl scout finessed, which in turn favors Genji's cookie habit.





	do a good turn

**Author's Note:**

> for mcgenji au week - mundane. as always, raw without beta. this is my favorite so far. thank you for reading!

_Another week_ , Jesse thinks as he leaves the sickly bright restroom for the suspiciously-lit corridor back to their booth. It's a beautiful night in May, perfect for too-sweet pancakes, soggy chicken fried steak, and dinner with family - a welcome respite from finals prep. Trying to be strong and consistent the whole quarter has made family bonding time sparse. But the one pro is that it limits most of his interactions with a certain person to text, and it's a lot easier to say no via text.

"Can't leave me on read now, can you, Jesse?" Fearsome and confident, like a predator cornering her prey. Fareeha stands almost as tall as him with her arms folded. Jesse freezes, swears to himself. It was too much to ask for, he should've known. He wasn't about to get through a whole encounter without Fareeha confronting him. She rounds on him, pleased, smug, and shakes a blue polyresin portfolio at him. "I'm collecting on your  _debts_."

"Aw, c'mon, Fareeha," he says, holding his hands out in a placating kind of way. "I got finals comin', I still gotta get something for Genji..." It's their two-year coming up, and she knows it. For a split second, her eyes dart away, like she's weighing out advantages and disadvantages. It gives Jesse hope that she'll show some mercy.

They walk back to the booth not long after. Fareeha positively _glows_  and Jack asks her if she's ready for her last year of AP exams ever. "Yeah, Uncle Jack," she chirps, glancing at Jesse, who avoids her eyes. "I took some pointers from Jesse. Pacing all the studying weeks in advance makes me feel really prepared. I feel like I barely need to cram this week! He's really onto something." To his credit, Jesse doesn't roll his eyes. Ana's good eye zeroes in on the portfolio sitting at his side. Gabriel follows her line of sight and  _c_ _ackles_.

Like he said: it's a lot easier to say no via text.

\- - - - - - - - - - 

> **Friday**  5:32 PM
> 
> _you can't hide forever._  
>  _i know where you live._  
>  _you're lucky mom won't let me drive yet._
> 
> **Saturday**  7:14 AM
> 
> _thanks jess you're so good to me_ _!!_  
>  _this is where you say np fareeha i owe you my life (:_
> 
> Holy god is this real  
>  You only sold to four ppl  
>  But they all got so much
> 
> _genji is your better half._  
>  _he helped me as soon as i started selling._
> 
> Fareeha  
>  Hes only helping himself  
>  This must be why hes carpooling to campus  
>  So he can spend more gas money on cookies
> 
> _it's not all gas money_  
>  _some of it is hanzo's._  
>  _it's not too late for you to buy some boxes either._
> 
> No
> 
> _cookies are great anniversary presents, jess._

\- - - - - - - - - -

On Sunday evening, while Genji is visiting, Jesse finds his hat. Brown, well-loved, it's never failed him over the years.

"Pardner," he drawls from the stairs, voice lowered. Genji is curled up on Jack's favorite spot on the loveseat. Terrace House is playing, muted on the TV. Dark cookies are strewn across the coffee table, illuminated by the image of the coward omurice on the screen. He mutters a hurried goodbye into his phone and sits up at attention, peers over the back at Jesse. What he wouldn't give to tattoo Genji's face on the inside of his eyelids, when his eyes light up like that, because he turns it into a whole body affair. His whole body lights up at the sight of him. His hat, mostly, but it's him by extension. Stuff like that, Genji's reaction and expressiveness - it makes him fall in love all over again.

Genji tries to do his best imitation of a cowboy saunter in Jesse's direction. They laugh when Genji pulls Jesse into his arms, kisses him short and sweet, leaves the taste of peanut butter and chocolate in his mouth.

\- - - - - - - - - - 

> **Today**  11:37 AM
> 
> _jess_  
>  _id like to put in orders_
> 
> Are u replacing what u ate out of gabes freezer
> 
> _no i sampled that_  
>  _i want more_
> 
> Genji for our anniversary Im surprising u with an intervention
> 
> _ok_  
>  _im replacing your dads stash_  
>  _and starting a stash for hanzo_
> 
> Lol
> 
> _girl scouts takes card now rite_  
>  _hurry b4 hanzklllk_  
>  _dffggdxxf_

\- - - - - - - - - -

Lectures go like they always do, so discussions are where he makes the sales. At a campus as big as Overwatch U's, Jesse is just another face in a sea of students. But that's why he's got his hat to identify him. It works almost as hard as he does. Middle of the week now, it's the last day he can make any sales, and he stays on campus a little longer than normal until no one approaches him anymore. Let no one, especially Fareeha, say that he has inadequate cookie-peddling skills.

Both Genji and Jesse have work occupying their time for the tail end of this week, with Genji's coinciding with their plans Saturday. He supposes it's a shame, but both of them have rigorous coursework in their respective majors. They get it. Sure, Gabriel points out it's sensible and mature, something a lot of people their age and older just can't work through. But it still sours his mood.

Jesse finds himself wishing he had a little more backbone Friday night. If he weren't burdened with cookie sales and Fareeha's competitive spirit, he might've gotten more time with Genji for  _this_  week, at least.

\- - - - - - - - - -

Dish-washing and bussing duty is doable, but less so with malfunctioning AC. He goes home Friday night feeling like an exhausted human prune.

\- - - - - - - - - -

> **Friday**  8:26 PM
> 
> _guess whose saturday night opened up!_  
>  _negotiating skills? i know her. shes my best friend_

\- - - - - - - - - - 

> **Today**  1:53 AM
> 
> Fareeha  
>  I need help
> 
> _what's up?_  
>  _are you guys okay?_  
>  _you finally wanna buy from me?_
> 
> I need u here. Noon
> 
> _oh_  
>  _well jesse i have some reviewing to do_
> 
> I dont think so  
>  You took some pointers from me didnt u  
>  Barely need to cram
> 
> Dont leave me on read
> 
> _i can't read suddenly. i don't know._
> 
> Fareeha  
>  Its for genji  
>  Ur best customer
> 
> _ugh. well for my best customer..._

\- - - - - - - - - -

Money talks. Jesse should've known. He says as much aloud.

"It's not  _money_ , Jesse," Fareeha huffs, turning her nose up at his observation. He doesn't have any little sisters, but Fareeha comes very close - she does him a solid, but at a cost. She rings the buzzer at 8:00 AM sharp, sets off the dogs, looks up at him with unbridled glee when he comes to the door with bedhead and drool caked onto his cheek.

But it's worth it, four hours later, in the kitchen. "Loyalty goes both ways. Genji helps me, so I help him. You'd know... but I guess not." She shakes a nearby cookie box at him, and then her eyes get wide. After she takes a look at the photos in the box, Jesse thinks her eyes look a little wet.

"You guys... you're so..." The word escapes her. Jesse moves closer and turns to offer her his arm. She punches it. "...gay."

His face threatens to break from the sheer power of his grin.

\- - - - - - - - - -

Hanzo passes him on the way to his car, going out for the evening. "Ah, Jesse." He nods. Then, like he's got something on his head, he pretends to pull it down with his thumb and forefinger. He smiles, trying to be friendly, but it looks like he knows something Jesse doesn't.

"Hey," Jesse greets him, straining with the weight of his backpack, greasy takeout, and soda. "Hanzo, hey. Where'd you pick that up?" He wonders where his hat is. Ain't seen it since Wednesday night. Jack probably put it away for him.

"Texas," comes his response, from the window of his car, as he backs out of his parking space.

Jesse stops in front of the stairs to the brothers' apartment, looks over his shoulder, eyes big, brows twisted in mock-contempt.

\- - - - - - - - - -

They finish the first course with plenty of room for more. Jesse's chopsticks are poised to strike when Genji comes out of the hall with a big, round box. "Okay, so," he starts, quickly. It could be nervousness, or it could be because the sooner he does this, the less food Jesse will have eaten by the end. As if to test his hypothesis, he locks eyes with Genji. Eats a piece of sausage. "Jesse! Just wait a little." Smirks.

But the smirk gets wiped clean off his face when, in lieu of words, Genji just reaches in and carefully lifts his hat out of the box. His hat, which when he last saw it, was well-loved and well-worn with scars aplenty: stains and discoloration from use, sunlight, mishaps he preferred to forget; a couple nicks in the brim; some asymmetry in the dip of the crown. It looks just like new. Like when Gabriel cleaned it last, when Jesse came to live with him for good.

Genji takes his dumbfounded silence as appreciation and kneels next to him at the coffee table. He sets the hat carefully on Jesse's head, squeezes his chopsticks hand in both of his. Then takes the chopsticks and eats a piece of sausage himself.

"I had to wait until Gabriel said it was okay," he says while chewing. "And I wanted it to be a good surprise. I had to call some of Hanzo's people so it'd be done on time."

Hands conveniently freed, Jesse tugs his backpack to him carefully. It's not like he brought anything to study with - the backpack was just extra protection for his gift, something Genji wouldn't think to look in.

"Dessert already, huh?" Genji sets the chopsticks down and scoots closer. He gets those crinkles at the corners of his eyes, the ones he usually gets when he smiles really hard. "They do custom boxes? Or are you hooking me up with a new flavor? Jesse, that's so cool."

"Nah." Jesse presents the box to him, and Genji stares at it for a good, long time. It's a thin mints box, but instead of girl scouts' faces on the largest surfaces of the box, it's a collage. Of them, together.

"'Luh-voos,'" Genji reads, his finger hovering over the label. He looks confused. Sounds it. "Love... love-you's. Jesse, you made this yourself..."

His ears perk when Jesse tilts the box  _just so_ , and when he reaches for it, Jesse gives it to him. Before he opens it though, he studies the collages Jesse put together. Genji's eyes glimmer in recognition. "This was the first time we got bubble tea. And when you asked me to go to your dads' vow renewal..." He turns it over to look at the back side, and if his eyes look just a little glassy, Jesse doesn't say anything. "I made you take so many selfies..."

"Two years, two sides on the box," Jesse murmurs, tipping his hat back. His restored hat. "The hardest part was realizing I only had so much space on one side."

With great care, Genji pulls the flaps of the box open and tugs out a plastic bag. "So it's thin mints after all, huh? Are these letters?" He's already holding one.

"Thin mints-inspired," he corrects. "Fareeha helped me out makin' these. Some of 'em are hearts, but the rest of 'em say--" Genji throws his arms around Jesse's middle with such force that his hat almost comes off his head to earn its first stain. He thinks he might've heard a crack, so he thanks the corresponding rib for taking one for the team. "--happy anniversary, Genji."

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://magnetholic.tumblr.com) if you wanna @ me :+)


End file.
